Kodak EasyShare Z915 – small screen mega zoom camera
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Fast speeds, sturdy design, easy to grip.
Thumbs Down:
Small LCD, slow AF performance.
Inside the Trunk:
Kodak EasyShare, utilities are drivers, USB cable, wrist strap.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Kodak EasyShare Z915 is a 10 mega pixels camera with 5x digital zoom, shooting programs include high sensitivity, panorama assist, night landscape, night portrait, self-portrait, portrait mode, back light, landscape, fireworks, children, sunset, museum, flower, candle, stage, beach, text, snow. Light sensitivity options includes ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 64. Special effects include Black & White, High color, Low color, Natural, Sepia. The camera has 32 MB internal memory further expandable through SD Memory Card.
Exposure modes include Aperture-priority, shutter priority, automatic, program and manual, minimum shutter speed is 16 seconds, maximum shutter speed is 1/1250 second, white balance presets include tungsten light, fluorescent, daylight, shade. Images are stored in JPEG format, videos are stored in QuickTime format. For video capture the resolution options are QuickTime – 320 x 240, QuickTime – 640 x 480. Image resolution options are JPEG 1280 x 960, JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 1824 x 1216, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2592 x 1936, JPEG 3648 x 2048, JPEG 3648 x 2432, JPEG 3648 x 2736.
The camera has a Zoom lens – F/3.5-4.8, macro focus range is 0.12-1.3m, minimum focus range is 19.7 inch, has 10x optical zoom, lens aperture is F/3.5-4.8. Flash modes include red-eye reduction, flash OFF mode, fill-in mode, auto mode. The unit has 2.5 inch TFT LCD. Connections on the camera are DC power input, Composite video/audio output and USB.
Additional feature on the Kodak EasyShare Z915 are Camera orientation detection, USB 2.0 compatibility, Scene Detection Technology, Auto power save, YouTube capture mode, Direct print, Display brightness control, Built-in help guide, Face-priority AF function, PictBridge support, Face detection, Digital image rotation, Built-in speaker, Sharpness control, Cropping an image, Histogram display, Date/time stamp, Audio recording.
Supported operating systems for the software are Apple Mac OS X 10.3 or later, MS Windows Vista, MS Windows XP. The camera is powered by 2 AA sized alkaline batteries. The device has a 1 year warranty.
Razzle Dazzle:
Kodak EasyShare Z915 is available in color options of red, blue and black. We got the blue camera in our test centers which we thought looked nice. The exterior is made of molded plastic and metal. We won’t call the camera sexy but at least it is not that ugly. On the positive side, the camera is comfortable to grip and has a sturdy body.
Inside Dope:
Mega zoom cameras are a step above point and shoot cameras and one step below the SLRs. The latter are for professional photographers or camera enthusiasts where as the point and shoot devices are for newbies who just don’t care much about the quality, all they want is to keep a collection of pictures of their friends. When it comes to mega zoom cameras the Kodak EasyShare Z915 is got a great feature set including fully automatic and fully manual shooting options. But it is still kept simple, user friendly and has a fast performance.
Kodak EasyShare Z915 lets you get extremely close to your subjects owing to the 10x zoom lens. On the top of the camera, there is zoom ring and shutter release, buttons for timer/drive, macro and flash, power button (which is tiny) and mode dial. Behind the device there is a small LCD, which has been deliberately trimmed down in size to cut costs and there are buttons for Play, Info, Menu and Delete. There is also Kodak’s EasyShare key for uploading photos to websites easily and to tag the pictures as favorites. Finally there is the four way navigation toggle with menu button in the center.
The camera is powered by AA sized batteries and not lithium ion ones. So if you intend to use this camera frequently get NiMH rechargeable batteries to cut down on running costs.
There are 17 scene modes for you to choose from however if you don’t know which way to go then choose the Kodak’s Smart Capture mode which combines Intelligent image processing, Intelligent capture control and Intelligent scene detection. The Z915 doesn’t give you much control due to lack of shooting options, it is a camera for newbies who get overwhelmed by too many features. You get control for aperture-priority modes, shutter speed but not white balance. You also get sharpness adjustments, color effects and exposure bracketing.
Kodak EasyShare Z915 is pretty good when it comes to speeds. It takes 1.7 seconds to wake up and start shooting, shot to shot timings are 1.1 seconds without the flash and it is delayed by a second when you put the flash on. In bright light, the shutter lag is 0.4 seconds and 0.6 second in dim light conditions. The camera also has 3 shot burst mode at1.6 fps. Unfortunately, the AF performance was quite slow especially in low light conditions.
Nitty Gritty:
Kodak EasyShare Z915 is a good option for people who want a camera without any scary advance options. It has decent photo quality which we say will eclipse the few drawbacks that it has.
